The invention relates to a novel form of whip suitable for use in horse racing.
Occasionally public concern arises over what is considered to be excessive use of the whip in horse racing. It is generally acknowledged, particularly by riders and others having experience of horses, that in racing it is essential to provide the rider with a whip for controlling the horse. For example, a horse being ridden in a race may have a tendency suddenly to veer to one side or the other and this can be dangerous, particularly in jumping races, due to the risk of interference or collision with other horses. The rider therefore requires a whip to provide instant control of the direction of the horse.
However controversy sometimes arises regarding the use of the whip on the hindquarters of the horse for the purpose of encouraging the horse to greater effort in order to win the race.
Whips for horse racing, have hitherto been made from a variety of materials. For example, whips have been formed from tapered lengths of cane, whale bone or similar hard but flexible materials. In more recent times, however, whips have been formed from glass fibre, either being formed entirely from glass fibre or comprising a thin flexible steel rod sheathed in glass fibre. In spite of the flexibility of such whips, the outer surface of the glass fibre is hard and this, combined with the comparative rigidity of the material, means that application of the whip to a horse's hindquarters can be extremely painful for the horse and can result in physical damage, and breaking of the skin of the horse to draw blood, upon repeated application.
In an endeavour to reduce the pain and physical damage caused by such whips, it has become the practice for glass fibre whips to be covered with a felt wrap having, at the end, flaps which extend beyond the extremity of the glass fibre. While this has alleviated part of the problem by slightly softening the impact of the whip, and spreading it over a larger area, the hardness of the glass fibre can still be felt through the wrap and unacceptable pain and damage may still be caused to the horse through persistent use of the whip by the rider, especially where the wrap has become wet from sweat or rain. Furthermore, the felt flaps at the end of the whip can themselves cause excessive pain and damage, again particularly when they become wet from the horse's sweat or from rain.
British Patent No. 2281186 describes a more humane type of whip intended to fulfill the purpose for which a whip is necessary when racing, but which will not cause excessive and unacceptable pain and damage to the horse even though it might be applied to the animal's hindquarters with great force and persistence by the rider. The whip described in British Patent No. 2281186 comprises an elongate self-supporting spine of glass fibre surrounded by an outer flexible sleeve of rubber or soft plastics material. Shock-absorbing means are disposed between the inner spine and the surrounding sleeve, and may comprise air or other gas trapped between the spine and sleeve, a foamed latex filler, resiliently flexible spacers between the sleeve and spine, or flexible tubing wound helically around and along the spine,
With this construction, as the comparatively soft surface of the outer sleeve strikes the horse's body its movement is arrested and the following inner spine is slowed down and cushioned in its subsequent impact by the shock-absorbing means. The effect is therefore of always providing a cushioning and protecting layer between the horse's body and the hard inner spine of the whip. It is found in practice that such a whip, even when struck with greater force than a conventional whip, will cause less pain and less damage to the body being struck due to the in-built cushioning effect.
The present invention provides improvements to the basic type of humane whip described in British Patent No. 2281186.